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OK another weekend of nal drinking over and Im very pleased with it. Had a family event on Friday evening. Had a glass of wine with diner and then went greyhound racing where I had two pints of heinekin. All very controlled and civilized, ws not even remotly focused on the drink in front of me. This used to shock me in the beginning but Im getting used to it now. Other littl things let me know that nal is working too like Hubby was finished his second pint and I still had more than half of mine left so he poured half of mine into his glass rather than buying another one as we were leaving shortly afterwards. If he had DARED do that before I would have taken his head off and would have been in a black mood. I went home and had a hot whiskey with cloves and lemon which I thourly enjoyed as it was so cold. All told I would guess about 9 units.

Saturday night had 2 glasses of wine and a hot whiskey , about 6/7 units. All great stuff. Sunday I would normally have a bottle of wine or more but had none yesterday and it was an easy decision even though hubby had a beer. Over all Im over the moon. Im nearly 6 weeks in now so Im wondering if I will spike. Any clues anyone?

Hi Mario

I had a fairly steady drop for about 5/6 weeks, then it went back up again, and took another few weeks to begin to drop. Others however, have had longer or shorter honeymoons - some have even had a steady decline all the way through.

the best advice I can give you is to focus on the positives and post often - anytime you notice anything positive make a note. That'll be a help if and when you have rougher times where you could otherwise lose heart.

......

that's great news Mario - congratulations on your progress!

one thing though - don't fell you have to drink just because you've taken your naltrexone - there are no negative consequences from taking naltrexone and not drinking. In fact, given that the idea is to drink as you usually did, but while taking naltrexone (to extinguish your habit/cravings), you're probably better off not drinking when you don't specifically have a craving/urge.

Yes 1-4-the road, I second that.. Congrats Mario on your progress. It was around my 6th week on taking Nal that I noticed my cravings really low and sometimes nonexistent! It was at that point I knew I was really drinking more out of habit than craving. Sometimes also I have taken my Nal and not really felt like drinking afterwards but did as I thought it best to do so, I had heard on the boards here not to make a habit of this.

Good luck to us all on our journey

I dont know where I got that idea from so. I thought that you either didnt take the nal and didnt drink OR took the nal and drank to help with extension. Either way I thik I still would have found it difficult not to have had that one glass which probaly sounds stupid. It was kinda like I wanted to celebrate not wanting to drink by drinking. Weird I know but Im still mightily happy with myself.

I was a little bit bummed last night. I went out and felt like I wanted to drink an ocean of alcohol. It took me by surprise to have cravings like this again and I was pretty dissapointed. However after my fourth drink I ordered another one and suddenly I just didnt feel like drinking it so we came home. It seemed like the nal took three hours to kick in. Im still very happy with it though. No alcohol today and zero cravings, so mostly good

You are defeating triggers -- events and thoughts/emotions that have historically made you want to drink. Some are huge, some are small. That's why your journey is a rollercoaster ride and your improvement will not be linear. But it's working for you and will work! Hang in there.

yes, triggers sure are weird...today I suddenly felt like I wanted a drink - in the middle of the afternoon. I could have just planned to take the nal and have a few at supper as was my habitual pattern. But instead, as I had to go out, I just sat and tried to think of what the trigger was. I couldn't really identify anything different going on but I did feel a bit stressed about things that are happening at home.

Funny that these little "stresses" cause the thought "I'd sure like a drink" which in my case means "I'd sure like to guzzle a dozen bottles of anything just to get off this pain wagon" But I didn't take the nal, didn't have a drink at supper which I've just finished and I feel fine. Whatever the trigger was it's gone. Yes, I still have the stresses and always will but thanks to God, and Dr. Sinclair, I have an option - drink or not drink. And more and more it's "not drink"

So Mario great going, keep it up. Drink when you really want one, but have an AF or two if you can.

Funny now that Easter is just around the corner and we can eat fun stuff and treats again, I'm more looking forward to having a ton of apple pie and my favourite mexican cheesecake bars than a bunch of booze!!! That's TSM for ya.